An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and
landscapes of the American South—and a revelatory argument for why
you must understand the South in order to understand America
We
all think we know the South. Even those who have never lived there
can rattle off a list of signifiers: the Civil War, Gone with the
Wind, the Ku Klux Klan, plantations, football, Jim Crow, slavery. But
the idiosyncrasies, dispositions, and habits of the region are
stranger and more complex than much of the country tends to
acknowledge. In South to America, Imani Perry shows that the
meaning of American is inextricably linked with the South, and that
our understanding of its history and culture is the key to
understanding the nation as a whole.
This
is the story of a Black woman and native Alabaman returning to the
region she has always called home and considering it with fresh eyes.
Her journey is full of detours, deep dives, and surprising encounters
with places and people. She renders Southerners from all walks of
life with sensitivity and honesty, sharing her thoughts about a
troubling history and the ritual humiliations and joys that
characterize so much of Southern life.
Weaving
together stories of immigrant communities, contemporary artists,
exploitative opportunists, enslaved peoples, unsung heroes, her own
ancestors, and her lived experiences, Imani Perry crafts a tapestry
unlike any other. With uncommon insight and breathtaking clarity,
South to America offers an assertion that if we want to build
a more humane future for the United States, we must center our
concern below the Mason-Dixon Line.